How did chickens survive before modern times?

[Bullitt]

It's a wonder the Cardinal survives without people putting out bird feeders....Seriously? The jungle fowl and up to modern chickens can forage quite well. If left alone would naturally select back to great foragers, hearty to whatever climate they happen to be in and go broody each spring at the very least. More over would survive with varying patterns that would weed out white birds for camouflage.

You are right. If they were left in the wild, the broody hens would be the only ones to reproduce, and also the ones that can forage and fly high enough into a tree to avoid predators. But because they are domesticated there are breeds that can't fly or won't go broody, and those traits would not work in the wild. But people want chickens that can lay many eggs and/or have big bodies for meat. And some are bred by people for pretty feathers.

Cardinals are one of the few birds in the colder regions of North America that don't fly south in the winter because they can find enough food through the winter. I am sure bird feeders make it much easier for Cardinals to survive through the winter, but Cardinals were surviving through the winter long before people put out bird feed. There are always Christmas cards that depict Cardinals in the snow. The Cardinal is often on a holly bush or something, so that there are the red and green colors of Christmas, which come from a holly bush with its green leaves and red berries.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I don' have a problem with soybean. It has to be cooked. None of my birds have been any the worse for having soybean in their diet. I suspect it is a health food diet issue for some people.

Before the prepared chicken feeds and the modern high production breeds, eggs and chicken were both extremely expensive. The campaign promise of "a chicken in every pot" was not promising a cheap meal. It was promising prosperity for everyone. Only the wealthy (or the farmer) ate chicken and it was only for a special Sunday meal. Adjusted for inflation, eggs were about $12 -$13 a dozen. Poor people couldn't eat them. They were only for special occasions like baking a birthday cake.

Chickens did not fend for themselves. They were offered protection from predators and the farmer's wife would toss them scratch grains and kitchen scraps. For that care the birds were not very productive: thus the high price for chicken and eggs.

Wild birds that were the ancestors of our domestic chicken lived in restricted areas where the weather allowed them to survive all year and there was natural food for them. Foods that are poisonous or unhealthy for wildlife generally don't taste good, so they aren't eaten.